6 seems fair. I actually like this well enough--it's certainly not the trainwreck that every other Sonic game since 1998 has been--but it is repetitive, and the special stage is a real bore. Curiously, the Saturn version has a completely different special stage, which is said to be the best in the whole series.

"In a recent interview, Aonuma stated that '[A]nybody that would...[make] a map has got to be a really weird person.' We at Kotaku find it unsettling that such a prominent game designer is racist against cartographers. Discuss in the comments below."

The tagline and review don't really fit the score if a 5 is supposed to mean "average" as Nintendo Life says it is. This review is another example why numerical metrics--particularly those based on the ten-point scale--usually don't work.

Putting a gamepad on the arcade cabinet was a great idea. For casual players, the familiar control scheme will make the arcade game less intimidating. For serious gamers, there's no need to transition to a different control setup when the game inevitably hits consoles.

Kirby's Epic Yarn can easily be had, new, at under $20. Why would anyone clamor for a game that would end up being MORE expensive on the eShop (at Nintendo's current price point) than in physical form? I"d much rather see hard-to-find games on the eShop, like, say, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.

So, I voted for Zelda. Any other time, Splatoon, Yoshi, or Xenoblade would've topped it. But an open-world Zelda designed after Link's 2D adventures could signal the series' return to the greatness of its NES and SNES titles.

Folks need to stop bringing up online play as if it has any relevance here. This is a tourney issues involving players far better than 99% of the users on this site. I do think the metagame needs a bit more time to develop, though. If no (or too few) counters are found in the near future, then Diddy shluld be nerfed.

Mobile games are almost universally crap. Retro games that get ported to (or remade for) mobile platforms can be quite good, though. I guess that's my segue into saying that everyone should download Taxman and Stealth's excellent remakes of Sonic 1, Sonic 2, and Sonic CD for Android and iOS.